This invention relates to a system that automatically prompts inspection of multiple components, and records inspection readings supplied by a user.
Many modern plants and factories include a large array of equipment that is inspected on a regular basis. In the past, one generally used approach was for an inspector to move from component to component working down a checklist on a clipboard. For each entry on the checklist the inspector would inspect the relevant component and then record the results of the inspection. For example, numerical readings such as gauge readings for pressure, temperature, flow and the like are often recorded, as well as readings regarding the state of valves (open/closed) and electrical switches (on/off).
This manual approach to recording inspection readings has many disadvantages. First, the inspection readings are recorded as manual entries on paper sheets. It is therefore cumbersome and time consuming to prepare summary reports, and when readings are reentered into an automatic data processing system there is a possibility for error in transcription. Furthermore, supervisors have no way of ascertaining whether the inspections were actually conducted as stated, because it is always possible that an inspector may enter inspection results without actually being present in the vicinity of the components being inspected.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,166,499 and 5,120,942, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, disclose a computer implemented tour monitoring system that can be used by a watchman or a guard to document guard rounds. This system has been found to be efficient and reliable in use, but it is not directed to the problem of facilitating the inspection of physical equipment and the recording of readings based upon such inspections.
Scribner U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,026 relates to another computer based system for collecting and using data associated with tagged objects. In the embodiment discussed at the top of column 9, a coded tag is placed in a room, and when the tag is scanned by a portable computer, the computer prompts the user to perform a programmed series of checks or other work associated with the objects in that room. After performing the work, the user may enter confirmation that it has been performed, thereby updating the schedule in the memory of the portable computer or the code of the tag itself. This system also is not directed to the problem addressed by the present invention, namely the efficient recording of readings obtained from inspections of physical components.
The article entitled "Pocket Micro Computers For Campus Maintenance Management" by Eli G. Katz (CAPPA Newsletter, Issue 40 (Nov. 1987) discusses the use of pocket micro computers for campus maintenance management. However, as shown in FIG. 3 of this article, a bar coded tag is applied to each item being maintained. This approach, if applied to a complex physical plant, would result in an inconveniently large number of bar coded tags which would be cumbersome to apply and to read on a regular basis.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved inspection prompting and reading recording system that is well suited for the recording of readings indicative of the state of physical equipment in a plant inspection, while avoiding an excessive number of machine readable labels and including features that increase the reliability of the recorded readings.